Red Sox in Cooperstown Pt. 5: Tris Speaker

TRIS SPEAKER
Years with Boston:  1907-1915 (.337/.414/.482, 39 home runs, 542 RBIs, 267 stolen bases)
Best Year in Boston:  1912 MVP (.383/.464/.567, 10 home runs, 90 RBIs, 53 doubles, 52 stolen base)

Tris Speaker was one of the greatest players who ever played for the Boston Red Sox.  He made his Major League debut in 1907 with 20 plate appearances.  The next year he played in a few more games but had yet to make much of an impact.  It was not until his first full season that Speaker really started to display the talent that would lead to him becoming such a force in the Red Sox lineup.  He hit .309/.362/.443 that year with seven home runs.  Of course this was during the Dead Ball Era, so seven home runs was quite a bit at the time.  He would get even better from there.

Speaker was a part of two World Series Champion clubs in 1912 and 1915.  1912 was his best season with the Red Sox and he was named the MVP that year, given the Chalmers Award, which was the name of the award at the time.  Speaker lead the league in doubles and home runs that season.  His success that season carried over into the World Series.  In 1915, Speaker was not able to hit a single home run, nevertheless he hit .322/.416/.411 and still had a terrific year.

Speaker was a phenomenal hitter for Boston, but his defense also drew some attention.  Speaker played very shallow in center field and was able to cut down base hits and throw out runners.  He was almost an extra infielder.

Unfortunately, due to a contract dispute, Boston ended up trading Speaker before the 1916 season for Sad Sam Jones and Fred Thomas.  He continued to play very well, possibly even better for Cleveland.  Speaker's time in Boston was very important to his Hall of Fame case and likely would not have been in the Hall without it, but he was even more successful in Cleveland.

10-10-10-10 Seasons in Red Sox History

I was curious about some of the big power/speed seasons in Red Sox history, I will have a post about 20/20 seasons soon (Boston has not had a 30/30 season), so I did some more research. Today however, I was more interested in how many players have had a season in which they had ten or more doubles, triples, home runs, and stolen bases. The triples part is the hard part. You have to have decent power to drive the ball and speed in order to move all the way to third base. So, I formulated a hypothesis as to which players I would see and then did the research.

First Trivia: There are two players that had two such seasons. Who are they?

My hypothesis: I expected to see Nomar Garciaparra, Jackie Jensen, one of the three of Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, or Johnny Pesky, Tris Speaker, and at least one other Dead Ball Era player.

The Results:
Nomar Garciaparra (2003): 37 doubles, 13 triples, 28 home runs, 19 stolen bases.
Johnny Damon (2002): 34 doubles, 11 triples, 14 home runs, 31 stolen bases.
Nomar Garciaparra (1997): 44 doubles, 11 triples, 30 home runs, 22 stolen bases. And it was his rookie year.
Jackie Jensen (1956): 23 doubles, 11 triples, 20 home runs, 11 stolen bases.
Bobby Doerr (1940): 37 doubles, 10 triples, 22 home runs, 10 stolen bases.
Billy Werber (1934): 41 doubles, 10 triples, 11 home runs, 40 stolen bases. Largely forgotten great player in the 1930's.
Tris Speaker (1912): 53 doubles, 12 triples, 10 home runs, 52 stolen bases.
Jake Stahl (1910): 19 doubles, 16 triples, 10 home runs, 22 stolen bases. Ah, the Dead Ball Era.
Buck Freeman (1902): 38 doubles, 19 triples, 11 home runs, 17 stolen bases.
Buck Freeman (1901): 23 doubles, 15 triples, 12 home runs, 17 stolen bases.

Trivia Answer: As you can see both Nomar Garciaparra and Buck Freeman did it twice.

Results: It's pretty rare to see these seasons. Most players do not hit a lot of triples. It's weird that there were four seasons in the first twenty years of the franchise's existence, then after 1956, there was not another one for over forty years. Garciaparra was an incredible player in his rookie season. My hypothesis was correct, although I did not guess that it would be 1956 that Jensen did it. Also, I was surprised that Doerr was the only player who did it. Pesky did not have much power, but I thought he may have hit ten home runs. I am very surprised that DiMaggio did not do it. Four Dead Ball Era players is surprising.